That's The Spirit!
by ABCSonicKirbyWarriors
Summary: When Vanilla finds out about Halloween, what does she do? Throw a party! Sonic, Tails, and all their friends dress up and come over to Vanilla's house, but will some surreal "guests" spoil the day for everyone? Read to find out! (Oneshot)


**Hi! ABCSonicKirbyWarriors here! I really wanted to write something for Halloween, and I know I'm super late, but I couldn't pass it up! ^^**

**Also, Rohini, this is for you, for being an awesome cousin. Have fun in Dubai! *laugh***

* * *

"Sonic! Sonic!" Tails ran up to his best friend, his twin tails waving excitedly. "We have to go to Cream's house, now!"

Sonic, who had been eating a chilidog, his eyes closed as he bit into the luscious, spicy food, startled and looked at Tails. "Huh? Why do we need to go to Cream's house?" He asked, but with the bite of chilidog in his mouth, it sounded more like, "Huh? Wha do we nee to go to Cream's housh?"

Tails facepalmed. "Eat with your mouth closed. _Then _talk." The young fox pushed one of his 'bangs' out of his eyes before continuing. "The reason we need to go to Cream's house is 'cause Vanilla's throwing a party for everyone! Rouge said she might even drag Shadow along!" Vanilla, mother of six-year-old Cream the rabbit, was stern but kind, and she was well known and liked among Sonic's _little_ group of friends. Okay, maybe it wasn't so little….

Tails was jumping all over the place with excitement. He couldn't help it-after a while, he grew to love Vanilla's parties.

Sonic quirked an eye ridge at Tails. He had suddenly perked up and started paying attention at Shadow's name-the reason he noticed that Tails looked awfully excited.

"Why're ya so excited, bro?" he asked, finishing the last of the chilidog in his hand. "Yeah, Vanilla can throw some sweet parties, and she does all the time, but doesn't she normally throw parties for a reason?"

Tails stared at Sonic as if he had sprouted a pair of wings. "Haven't you looked outside?"

"Well, yeah," Sonic said, remembering the decorations he had seen outside. Trees covered with fake spiderwebs, spiders, and corpses; hollow pumpkins with faces carved into them and candles inside that accentuated the expression on the orange faces; lights hanging from the roofs-heck, once he even saw a life-sized statue of a zombie. _That_ had been actually somewhat perturbing.(Yay for vocabulary words.) It was like the people who decorated their houses actually-and slowly it began to dawn on him-it was like they actually wanted to scare whoever saw the decorations. No wonder the decorations had been so eerie.

"They're not _too_ bad…but what's with all that orange, black, and purple? And why are they tryin' to scare the heck outta the little kids? Some of that stuff out there ain't what I'd call kid-friendly…and why do they do it in this one month, instead of doing it when they feel like it?"

Tails was no longer staring. He was gaping. "Sonic…it's called Halloween!"

"Hallo-what, now?"

Tails sighed, but perked up as he began to describe this thing called Halloween. "It's…a holiday where kids dress up in costumes and go from door-to-door. When the people open the door, the kids hold out their baskets and say 'trick-or-treat', and the people at the door give them candy!" Tails did a little dance on his feet. He liked candy, _especially_ mint candy.

Sonic did not seem to be buying it. "What's the point of that?" he asked, looking almost bored.

Tails froze for a second before answering. "There's a history behind all this. See, these guys way back in history though that on October 31, the line between living and dead would overlap, and dead people would come to life and cause havoc. Now, these same guys thought that wearing costumes and masks would scare the dead-alive people. And later on, people would ask for 'a penny for the old guy', and then when the people in the UK came over here a little later, which was still a long time ago, they carried the 'penny for the old guy' tradition with them. And that evolved into 'trick-or-treating'! But also…it's fun, Sonic! The reason they still do it is for the fun of it, and Vanilla's throwing the party to celebrate Halloween!"

"But won't Cream get scared?" Sonic pointed out.

Tails paused a moment, and then made his eyes as big and adorable as he could.

"Aw, not the puppy eyes again!" Sonic groaned. Still Tails looked at Sonic, refusing to give up.

"Fine, you win," Sonic sighed, smiling and shaking his head. Tails beamed.

"Hang on! I'll get my costume and basket, and I'll be back!" Still grinning, Tails rushed to his room. What room, you ask? Well, see, the little house Sonic and Tails were in was divided into a lab, a workshop, a basic kitchen, and three rooms: one for Sonic, one for Tails, and one for any guests-not that they had many.

"Waitwaitwait! What costume!?" Sonic yelled after the kitsune. But by that time, Tails had vanished.

"Looks like I'm stuck waiting here."

Tails soon emerged, wearing a zip-on costume. It was pale blue, going along with his eyes very nicely. His sleeves extended into bright, pale blue wings, and his normal socks and red-and-white sneakers had been replaced with a pair of yellow shoes for feet. It was pretty cute.

"…You're a bird?" Sonic guessed.

"Yep!" Tails nodded.

Sonic chuckled. "Man, you're gonna attract attention with that on." His face contorted with confusion. "Wait, where'd you get that?"

Tails gracefully ignored him, his face growing serious as he thought on another matter. "What're you gonna wear…oh! I've got it!" He ran off again, as Sonic just stared at him. When he arrived, he was holding an orange hoodie with big cat ears on the hood.

Sonic stared at him. "I'm not wearing that." When Tails looked at him, he sighed. "Fine. Here, give it." Tails gave it to him. Sonic put the fuzzy orange hoodie on, wincing at the touch of it against him. He wasn't acclimated to wearing anything but shoes, socks, and gloves, so this was sorta uncomfortable…

"What am I supposed to be?"

Tails looked surprised for an instant, then brightened. "You can be the monster under the bed!"

A smacking sound could be heard as Sonic facepalmed. "Come on, bud…."

* * *

At dark, Tails grabbed his trick-or-treating basket, spun his tails round and round, rose into the air, and raced off towards Cream's house. Sighing, Sonic put on a burst of speed and followed him.

Halfway to Cream's, Sonic and Tails met Amy, who was dressed in a strapless red dress that went down to her knees. To go along with that, she had white fairy wings attached to her back, and she had removed the headband she normally had on, letting her quills sweep her shoulders and putting on a red, feathery hair clip instead. She was also wearing a little red lipstick and eye shadow, and holding a red basket with a jack-o-lantern face on it. Sonic couldn't help but admire how different, how _pretty_ Amy looked, wearing the costume and standing under the waxing gibbous moon. And of course, Amy gave Sonic a death hug as soon as she saw him, and miraculously managed to keep her makeup and dress unchanged.

"Ughh….Amy…_can't breathe_…"

"Sorry." Amy let go of Sonic and stared at him. "You just look _so cute_ in that…"

"Oh Mobius. Tails, help me."

Tails gave Sonic an amused look before turning to look at Amy. "Nice dress, Amy."

"Thanks," Amy said happily. "I made it myself. Hey, look, we're almost at Cream's house! Race you guys! Oh, and by the way…" she added. "I have a 5-second headstart."

"No problem," Tails and Sonic said at the same time. Five seconds after Amy had run off, they started after her with all they had, catching up to her quickly and arriving at the door.

"You win," Amy panted.

"Yep." Sonic smiled at Amy before knocking. The door opened to reveal Vanilla, smiling at them in an Indian sari, her hair pulled back.

"Why, hello," she said. "I'm glad to see you could make it. One of Cream's friends suggested I should have a party, so I did. Please, make yourself welcome!"

Sonic grabbed a chilidog from a small plate and began to chew, looking around. He saw Tails shyly talking to Cream, who was dressed as a black kitten, along with Cheese-the little Chao was dressed like a bird as well. He couldn't see Knuckles and the Chaotix-perhaps they weren't there. Sonic snorted. Of course. The Chaotix had no reason to be absent, but Knuckles-pshaw. He'd be guarding the Master Emerald. But there would have been no need for that-Rouge was there in the house!

Sonic burst out laughing, nearly spitting out the bite of chilidog in his mouth. Rouge was there alright, in a black ghost girl dress that went to her ankles. She was wearing mascara that contrasted well with her white fur, so that she still looked cool, without the freaky factor you normally find in ghost girl costumes. But that wasn't what Sonic was laughing at. He was laughing at…Shadow, who was in a Grim Reaper costume…and did _not_ look happy about it. Hearing laughter, Shadow turned and glared at Sonic, who remained unfazed and continued laughing.

"I _knew_ Rouge would bring ya! So Shads…how's it goin'?" Sonic grinned at Shadow, who just glared back.

"Shut up, Faker."

Rouge glanced over at the two hedgehogs. "Cut it out, Shadow, at least I didn't put you in that other costume." Shadow blushed, but was fortunate enough to have a mask on. Rouge laughed.

After general socialization and chilling out (literally, in Sonic's case, after Shadow threw him out the door-he wasn't left unpunished, however, and Sonic got back in) and some cake, it was time for games.

First was classic 'Duck-duck-goose'. Of course, Sonic and Shadow kept picking each other, but they never managed to catch the other.

Next was a game that Vanilla, Cream, and Cheese had made up. It was called 'Trick-Or-Treat'. Everyone had to sit in a circle, and everyone had a bag of goodies(not theirs to keep-they got different goodie bags later) in their hands. One person-Tails, in this case- had a hat full of names, and he would pull two names. The first person was the person who got up and walked up to the second person, saying 'trick-or-treat', while the second person gave the first an object from their bag-and they had to choose randomly, no peeking allowed.

First turn was Cream. Tails ended up pulling himself from the hat and he had to reach in, pulling out an artificial daisy. ("How did _that_ get there?" Amy wondered…) Next, Rouge and Shadow got drawn. That was a big laugh for everyone.

"I hate you," Shadow muttered, walking back to his place in the circle with a cupcake in his hand. "I hate all of you." He brightened somewhat as he sat back down, eyeing the cupcake. "But then again…"

And then, of course, Sonic and Amy got picked. Along with all the screeching laughter, Sonic had probably blushed nine different shades of red by the time he got to Amy's spot in the circle.

"T-trick or t-treat…Amy…" he said awkwardly, holding his little basket out and looking away awkwardly. Now, if only he could ignore _everyone's laughing screams…._He didn't notice Amy's intent, narrowed gaze on him, or the word she whispered, softly, menacingly. "…Trick."

And that's…when it all started.

* * *

"Treat! Happy Halloween, Sonic!" Amy quickly went back to her sweet, happy, obsessed self and handed Sonic something.

"W-what is this?" Sonic turned the thing over in his hand.

"It's a love charm…so you'll marry me…." Amy had stood up, her hands clasped together dreamily.

"Aww, you like Pinkie!" Rouge exclaimed, and everyone guffawed, except for Cream, who blinked innocently, unaware of what was happening.

Blushing even deeper(like that were _possible_!), Sonic turned around, ready to get back to his spot in the circle which was far, far away from Amy, but a soft, sudden moan and a hand grabbing his stopped him.

"Huh?" Turning around, he saw that Amy had curled up, tears streaming down her cheeks and her free hand cradling her head.

"Wha'? Amy, what's going on?" Sonic eased his hand out of Amy's grip and crouched down near her, shaking her shoulder gently. By this time, everyone's laughter had long since ceased, and everyone was crowded around Amy, asking her if she was okay.

"Amy? Amy? What's happening to you?"

"Miss Amy….Miss Amy, are you okay? I'll…I'll get an ice pack-Mommy has some!"

"Whoa, what's going on?"

"Snap out of it, Pinkie! What, have you got a headache?"

"It…i-it hurts…." Amy sobbed, clutching her head.

After a while of fretting and soothing, Amy's trembling and sobbing eventually stopped.

"Hey…Amy? Ames?" Sonic shook Amy gently, but something felt…off. He couldn't describe it, but something about Amy's silence sent chills down his spine.

Amy's head popped up, and her eyes flew open. And almost everyone there-especially Cream- screamed.

Amy's eyes were glowing and red, with little alternating rings of dull yellow and red inside of them.

"H-Hey…Amy…you-y-you okay?" Sonic backed away slowly, as did Rouge, Tails, Cream, and everyone else but Shadow, but even the black hedgehog looked uneasy-he had taken his mask off, so Sonic could tell.

Amy got up slowly, the eerie look accentuated by the red and black on her dress. Slowly, her footsteps echoing on the wooden floor, the pink hedgehog walked towards all of them. Sonic backed away further, thoroughly creeped out by now. He had seen those red eyes before…

"S-Sonic, what are we going to do?" Sonic stiffened at a voice in his ear, but relaxed when he realized it was Tails.

"I dunno…what happened to her?" Sonic's breath hitched in his throat for a moment as he dug deep into his memories, remembering where he had seen those eyes...or at least, something similar.

"What's wrong, Big Blue?" Rouge was in a fighting stance, tense with apprehension. Having heard Sonic's breath catch, she wanted answers.

"Those eyes…that time s-she was possessed by King Boom Boo…her eyes look so similar…."

"King Boom Boo? Who the heck is that?" Rouge gave Sonic a skeptical glance.

Sonic tensed up again as Amy took another step towards them. "Hasn't Knuckles told you about him….Fine. I'll explain later-just run now!" Sonic bolted for the door. Rouge, Tails, and some of Cream's friends were right behind him. Shadow scowled at Amy, clearly not scared. Cream, who was trembling with fear and worry, was hugging Vanilla, and both of them were hiding in the kitchen.

* * *

Amy walked towards Shadow, her eyes glowing in that eerie manner, her expression emotionless. Shadow narrowed his eyes, but startled and yelled "Chaos Control!" a millisecond before Amy brought down her hammer, smashing and splintering the wood floor. Oh well. The fox was good at fixing-he'd be able to fix the floor.

* * *

Outside, Sonic narrowed his eyes. The moon was full, but there were trees blocking the light, and trying to account for your friends under next to no light is a hard task, especially when you don't know about a third of them. You should try it.

"Are we all here?!" He yelled, opting to go with the simplest option.

"I-I'm o-okay." Tails stuttered, hugging his twin namesakes.

"Well, count me, Blue," Rouge muttered, dusting her costume off. At least she looked unfazed.

"Um…we're okay," two twin mice girls in Alice in Wonderland costumes said timidly.

"I'm here…and what happened?" A young coyote girl asked.

"…Long story, kid," Sonic muttered. "Save it for later. Waiiiittt…." He dragged out the word as he looked around. "Where are Shadow, Cream, and Vanilla?!"

"Oh no!" Rouge took off, ready to bring the three Mobians outside, but Tails grabbed her leg and yanked her down.

"Nu-uh!" He said forcefully. "Amy's probably possessed by an angry spirit, according to my Halloween research. Keep away from her, Rouge!"

"Fine." Rouge looked a little sulky.

A branch snapped.

"Huh?" One of the mice turned her head, her eyes widening. She tugged on the sleeve of her twin sister and pointed at a silhouette.

"Sinai, look!"

The other mouse, now known as Sinai, poked Sonic's leg(she was too short to tug his sleeve.) When Sonic looked down, she pointed at the silhouette. "Mister Sonic, what is that?"

"Oh…my…goodness…"

Heavy, clinking, metallic steps. Terrified shrieks of kids and their parents. A maniacal laughter. Only one thing could cause that. He opened his mouth to say something, but Rouge beat him to it.

"Eggman. Hmph, wonder what he's up to."

"Are you kidding!?" Tails hissed at her.

"Come on, we've gotta fight that thing!" Sonic had dashed off towards the large object in the distance without thinking.

"Okay, kids," Rouge said, quickly turning to Cream's friends. "Stay here, and _don't move_-not 'less you wanna be robot fuel. I heard he's bringing back his ol' Badniks."

The five or so kids nodded timidly.

"Okay, then!" Tails said, taking off. "Let's go incapacitate that machine!"

Rouge sweatdropped. "Whatever, kid."

Sonic looked around him. A large robot that was faintly reminiscent of E-123 Omega was firing its lazers at the streets. Sonic couldn't help but smirk. _Looks like Egghead left out the programming to help it aim!_ He jumped and spindashed the robot, but before he could make grinding contact with it-

"Oww!"

-the robot had _caught him with its metallic hand and was holding him_. Albeit, the hand was sliced open by the hedgehog's quills and was sparking, but it was still holding onto him-and it wasn't about to let go.

"Let go!" Sonic struggled to free himself, but found that he was shocked by the robot's sparking hand. "Oww!"

"Blue!"

"Sonic!"

"Rouge! Uh, hey, Tails! Don't get any closer-woah!" Sonic was now on the ground, rubbing his sore rear end. "Gee, Egghead, you could at least treat the passengers right!" Sonic mocked Eggman, looking for a rotund man in red and finding him in the little vehicle he always flew around in-the Eggmobile.

"Shut up, hedgehog! I will now destroy you and take over this world!" Eggman shook his fist wildly at Sonic, pressing (and, dare I say, almost smashing) a big red button. Wow, Eggman, so original.

After he pressed the button, the robot's size decreased dramatically, until it looked like the metallic version of King Boom Boo-without the colors. _It's a ghost. And on Halloween, too._

"But on Halloween!? What kinda idiot spoils everyone's fun to take over the world?" Tails yelled.

"Watch your mouth, Tails," Sonic said, nevertheless proud that Tails was standing up to Eggman.

"Hohoho! Who cares about the fox's mouth?" Eggman said, leering at Sonic. "It won't matter one way or the other, because you'll be well gone by the time anyone comes around to caring! Halloween Egg-sterminator, _attack_!" The ghost-like robot lunged, instantly wrapping Tails in a fog-like substance, but…it wasn't fog. Tails could hear voices, legacies, emotions through the fog-except it wasn't fog at all. It was the spirits of actual people.

Tails gasped. The spirits wrapped themselves around him, absorbing his will to fight, making him feel empty and cold inside. _He wasn't supposed to go _that_ far! That's kinda scary!_

"What are you doing to him, Eggman!?" Sonic spindashed the robot, but found the metal hardly gave way. Growling, he spindashed it again and again, but that didn't help much either. He hadn't even slashed halfway through the thing's arm!

"-Control!" A bright light surrounded everything, enveloping it. When it faded, Shadow appeared, holding an unconscious Amy by the hand, not really being bothered to touch her anywhere else.

Sonic looked considerably relieved. _About time! But where are Cream and Vanilla?_ "I was _wondering_ where ya were! Hey, wait..." he trailed off looking at Amy. "What happened to her?"

Shadow didn't look to concerned as he replied, "She just dropped all of a sudden. She'll live."

"How do you know that!?" Sonic shot back. When he got no reply, he motioned to the ghost robot behind him, which was suspiciously still. "Think you could help a bit? He ain't exactly fragile, though, I'm warning you-"

"Look out, Faker!" Sonic turned around to see the robot shooting a jet of the strange, foggy-white, spirit holding mist right at him. He jumped, the soles of shoes skimming the stuff and sending a shudder down his spine.

It wasn't until he heard Rouge's worried cry and Shadow's pained one that he realized his mistake.

"Oh...crud..." Sonic turned to see Shadow on the ground, blacked out, the spirited mist surrounding him, and Rouge, shaking the black hedgehog desperately.

"Rouge...come on! Tails, do you have any ideas from the land of geniuses? 'Cause we could sure use them!"

"Sorry, Sonic!" Tails yelled, jumping over another stream of mist. "I'm pulling a blank! But what I do know is, avoid the soul-filled mist! It'll drain you of your will to fight and knock you out if it's sent out with enough force!" There was a look on his face identical to that of someone who thinks the other is overdoing something. But considering the updates Eggman had been adding to his robots lately, if you thought this wasn't over-done, drop dead.

"I hear ya, bud!" Sonic narrowed his eyes, studying the robot while dodging alternating lasers and spirit mist, then out of the blue(no pun intended), he spindashed its neck with full force. The robot's head flew off and landed in the grass.

"Nice," Rouge complimented. "I'm just going to play nurse and see how everyone's doing."

"Well, you might have passed this test, but can you...stand up to this?" Eggman cackled, pointing a strange, gun-like object at Tails. The fox's eyes widened, and he tried to spin his two tails to fly out of the way.

"Tails, run!" Sonic said, jumping over robot remains and trying to reach the Eggmobile.

"I-I can't," Tails murmured. "It's like, like, my legs won't listen to me! I feel so...out of it..."

Sonic jumped, reaching for the gun thing.

"Oh no, rodent!" Eggman exclaimed, manipulating the Eggmobile a little further to the right, safely out of Sonic's reach.

Oblivious to the scene in front of her, Rouge called out,"Amy's...dead! Oh my-Oww! Watch it, bub!" A shot had hit her, slicing off more than half her ear. Blood gushed from the wound, and Rouge held her hand to her head, trying to staunch the blood's flow.

Sonic turned. "Wha'? No! Focus, Sonic, focus..." Aiming for the gun,Sonic jumped and knocked it out of Eggman's hand-after Eggman shot it. Something red scraped Tails' cheek, and the fox fell limply against a street lamp.

"No! _Tails_!" Sonic turned to Eggman. "What was that!? You know what-you're messed up beyond belief if you're attacking people when they're trying to have some fun! Amy and Tails are _dead_," he spat the word 'dead'. "Shadow's out of it, Cream and Vanilla-who knows what happened to them, Rouge is missing half her ear, and Knuckles and the Chaotix will be _shell-struck_ when I tell them!" A strange sensation came over Sonic like he was slowly slipping away...

* * *

"...up...Wake...WAKE UP, SONIC! Sonic, wake up!"

"Wha'?" Sonic looked up, blinking right into Tails' blue eyes.

"You fell asleep after the games," Tails said. "You missed Knuckles, Vector, Espio, and Charmy coming. They took a picture of you while you were asleep," the fox snickered.

"What!? I'll get them..."

"Vanilla wants to give you some chilidogs to take home," Tails added. "We're just gonna make a circle and say what we enjoyed the most about the party so Vanilla can improve her parties, not that she needs to, they're awesome, but anyways, then we're gonna escort Sinai, Roseen, Shiko, and Namika home." Upon noticing Sonic's confused face, he added, "Cream's friends?"

"Oh." _So...it was all a dream? They're not really dead? Eggman never attacked? ...Thank goodness._

"Hey, Sonic." It was Knuckles. "I heard you got a love charm from Amy? I never knew you _actually_ liked her!"

"Grr..." Sonic's eye twitched as Knuckles, along with Vector and Charmy, who were behind him, burst out laughing. Espio stood from a corner, silently watching as he ate some salad, dressing-free.

* * *

When it was Sonic's turn in the circle to say what he enjoyed most, he said, "What I liked most were those chilidogs-and that dream I had when I fell asleep."

The other people's _expressions_...

* * *

**A/N: I'll just say this much. I laughed when I wrote that. A lot.**

**YOU WERE NOT EXPECTING THAT ENDING, WERE YOU? COME ON, ADMIT IT!**

**That being said, please read and review this long, really late oneshot! :D**

**Picture is by ShadowAkeno on Deviantart, NOT ME!**


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